Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1887-05-25
&eadiug.
HOW IT FEELS TO BE HANGED.

uheOQOre Z WuO WAS uduSeu az
Springer, New Mexico, on the 9th instant,
for the murder of Frank Unruh IN Coliax
county, wished to be remembered as the
one American who was hanged twice for
q single crime. In conversation with the
Sun correspondent a short time after he
had received word from Governor Ross
that there was no hope for him, Baker
said:
ut is not the pain that I fear at all.
I have been hanged, and l know what
I am talking about. What ails me is that
I don't want to die, and don't think l
ought to. Probably if you knew that in
an instant YOU were to be blown to moth
ingness, so that you could experience no
suffering whatever, you would appreciate
how 1 feel about it. AS for the mode OF
death, you can say that it is as good as any
other, and it don't need to be too artisti-
cally done, either. Why, when they hang
ed me first down here by the railroad track,
l was scared half to death. They had no
modern appliances. and I made up my
mind that they were going togive me a ter
rible struggle of it, but it was nothing OF
the sort. The mob swung me off from a tel
egraph pole like they would a log, and then
one of them pulled my legs. That isn't
so almighty nice, but still it don't hurt as
YOU might think it would. | must have
hung there ten or fifteen minutes before
the Sheriff and his posse found me and
cut me down. OF course by that time l
was unconscious, butt remembered enough
of what occurred to Danish any fear that l
might have of death on the galloWs. It's
death in whatever form it comes that l
object to. If I have got to 60 l had just as
soon 90 by the rope as by the bullet, anu
I had a good deal rather 90 by the rope
than by the knife or by poison. You can
say this much for the information and
comfort of all the poor fellows who will
have to swing when l am gone. Iellthem
to brace up and take it easy. Ihey are
going to die easier deaths than three
fourths of the fat old Judges who sentence
them and who expect to die in their beds.
There has been altogether too much writ
ing and talking on the subject of the bar.
barity of the gallows. I'm in favor of
abolishing capital punishment myself, but
if a man must die, what's the use of being
too particular about the mode so long as
you have got a good enough scheme noW""
Later on, in speaking about his crime
and his two punishments, one by the mob
and the other by the law, Baker said:
"Under all the circumstances my crime
was not murder, any way. l had become
involved in a quarrel between unruh and
his wife and, foolish as that was, it would
have led to nothing more if Unruh had not
attacked me. / had to kill him or be kill
ed. The woman swore against me in
order to save herself. She was scared to
death because they lynched me, and she
was afraid that unless somebody swung
for the crime she might be called on
some dark night. But whether my crime
was deliberate murder or not, I think l
bo,,o boon p,,pichoH opO1uh IT. ia moro
than a year since the mob lynched me and
since that time I have lived with a rope
around nv neck all the time. AS l have
said to YOU, my sufferings when I was be-
ing resuscitated were greater than they
were when I was hanging. It took me
three months to get over the effects of the
lynching. Two or three times a day my
brain would be in a whirl and / would
lose all control of myself. Then when |
slept I would 20 through it all again At
length, when l was brought to trial and
was convicted and sentenced to death |
had the rope once more before me. The
anxiety about the trial and later about
my appeals has worn on me until my
nv nerves are in about as bad condition
as they were when I was in the hospital
at Santa Fe, and the old complaint from
which I suffered when | was recovering
from the lynching has returned again. L
haven't slept for months without hanging
by the neck through it all. Can you i'm
agine what it is to be conscious all the
time of dangling in that way? Asleep or
awake 1 have a rope about my neck, and
l know exactly how it feels. | think l
have had enough of it, but as they seem
to think not in these parts I suppose / shall
have to take some more. 1 can tell you
though, that 1 don't want anybody to
bring me to life this time. When ! 60 out
Tomorrow I will know just what is com
ing, and when 1 tell the Sheriff to let me
slide I will be the first man in America
who has lived a year and a half to say
that a second time to the hangman."
Baker had several warm friends here
who labored earnestly in his behalf, and
who regard his punishment as unjustly
severe. He went to the rope unflinching-
ly, and just before the trap was sprung,
when the attendant shifted the knot a
little, he heard Baker say:
"That's right; I have been in the habit
of having it a little higher up."-Co~es-
pondence of the New York Sun.